title: Oct4: the final frontier, differentiation defining pluripotency.
abstract: The transcription factor OCT4 is a cornerstone of pluripotency, and yet OCT4 has also been associated with differentiation in a number of contexts. Reporting in this issue of Developmental Cell, Frum et al. (2013) show that OCT4's major early activity in the blastocyst is to support primitive endoderm differentiation.
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, 5 Little France Drive, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH16 4UU, UK.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Livigni
authors.forename: Joshua M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Brickman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology*; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D004707:Endoderm / Q000196:embryology*; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008297:Male; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; C494174:Pou5f1 protein, mouse